The Virginia Council on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children (Virginia Council) was created in 2009 to consider any and all matters related to the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The Compact seeks to remove barriers to educational success imposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and deployment of their parents. The Compact addresses such issues as timely enrollment and placement, on-time graduation, and sharing of information between states to ensure a smooth educational transition for dependents of military families as they move from and to other states.

The Commonwealth is home to some of the Nation's largest and most important military installations and educates more military children than most states in the nation. As of July 3, 2022, the United States Defense Manpower Data Center estimated that there are 71,293 school age military-associated children of active duty military, United States Public Health Service (USPHS), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) members ranging in age from five to 18 residing in Virginia. According to this data, Virginia is home to nearly 11,000 more school age children than Texas, the next highest State. According to the Virginia Department of Education’s (VDOE) 2021-2022 military identifier End of Year Count, public schools in Virginia serve 81,224 military-connected students. These are students whose parents serve on active duty in the United States Armed Forces, United States Reserve Forces, or in the Virginia National Guard.

The average military student experiences twice the transition challenges as compared to non-military connected students during high school, and most military children will attend six to nine different school systems from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The Compact seeks to make transitions easier for the children of military families so that they are afforded the same opportunities for educational success as other children and are not penalized or delayed in achieving their educational goals.

The continued focus for the Virginia Council in 2022 was identifying the needs of key stakeholders and working to ease the needs of military-connected children in our schools. The Council was unable to meet during 2022, but the VDOE continued to support the educational transition needs of the military-connected children and their families in a variety of ways.

This executive summary provides an overview of the work conducted by the VDOE to support military-connected children and their families.